Since so many think of influence in this self-aggrandizing and materialistic way, it may seem irreverent at first, and even religiously against the grain, if I tell you that influence is very much a theme of Scripture, of Divine teaching, and further, if I urge you, as scripture teaches, to become an influence.

Scripture teaches that all of us are in a position to be persons of influence. Scripture teaches that, whether we like it or not, we are all persons of influence in one way or the other; and finally, that it is our duty to be persons of influence.

Though we think of people of influence as those who achieve high office and power - Presidents, for whom doctrines and highways are named, senators who can make or break national policies or programs - we all can be people of as great, in certain ways even greater, influence.

Sacred Scripture is full of stories of "ordinary people" who are of great influence. I think, for example, of the story of Naboth and his vineyard. Naboth was a so-called "ordinary Israelite farmer" who owned a vineyard adjacent to the palatial estate of the King of Israel, Ahab. The King coveted that vineyard as a location, perhaps, for a pleasure garden where he could take his ease and entertain high potentates. And though he offered Naboth several times the going price of the vineyards, Naboth refused to sell. He refused to sell even at the cost of his life because it was God’s teaching not to remove the ancient landmarks. According to God’s teaching, inherited land was not to be permanently alienated from a family. Ownership equity was to be preserved in Israel so that no clan would fall into permanent destitution. Naboth’s steadfast stance - this ordinary man - in behalf of this Divine principle brought about the mission of Elijah the Prophet to preserve God’s teaching in Israel, and resulted in the deposition of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, and the removal of the cults of the foreign Gods from among the people of Israel. None of this would have happened without Naboth. He was quite an influence.

But not only Biblical folk. Today, ordinary people, as we say, are still a great influence. One of the great movements of the Twentieth Century was the civil rights struggle here in the United States. Of course, and rightfully so, we think of Martin Luther King, Jr., its leading figure and spokesman, as the great influence of that movement. But the spark of the movement that brought Martin Luther King, Jr. to its leadership was a woman, Rosa Parks, who simply refused to move into the back of the bus where black people at that time were supposed to sit.

I think also of the so-called "whistle blowers" who risked income and well-being to protect the health and safety of the rest of their fellow Americans, or of women who, despite the threat of loss of position and reputation, have spoken out on the issue of sexual harassment. In time, it is these ordinary people who become our heroes. And they are sometimes of greater influence than many in high office, or on television, or the people we see in People magazine. It does take the kind of courage and conviction required by God of the faithful of ancient Israel, but we all can do it.

Still to this day I hear people, even of my age, talking about the influence upon them when they were students, Jews and Christians as well, of a man who had been a professor of history and the director of a college student religious organization called "Hillel" at the University of Illinois. His name was Abraham Sachar. People were influenced, yes, by his fine lectures, his personality, his charisma, but most of all because he took a very personal interest in the lives of so many of his students. In later years, when Sachar set out to create what has become now a great university, Brandeis, many of those students and counselees became active and generous supporters, and assured its success.

We are just as often influenced by persons not in any particular position of influence, sometimes in even more significant ways. When I was a youngster, about thirteen or fourteen, I went to a summer camp based on very idealistic principles, one of which was sharing. The practice in those depression days at that camp was that if any one of us was sent a package of sweets or cookies it was all put together in the kitchen by those who received them, and at the Saturday night camp fire or gathering, all the sweets were shared by all. Across the road there was a shop where campers, if they had the money, could buy candy bars or such for themselves. I remember some campers urging me to do so. But there was an older fellow, he was at the most sixteen or seventeen, who took me aside and said, "When a group to which you belong has good principles, you should stick to them. One of our principles is sharing; and living by principles is important." So as young as I was, and as young as he was, as an older peer he communicated to me the idea of self-discipline in behalf of principle. And this has been a permanent influence upon me in all kinds of serious life situations.

Or even simpler, so called, but perhaps even more important: One time when I was a seminary student burdened with studies and part-time jobs, and hurrying to get to the airport to go to my weekend student congregation, in a nervous rush, under pressure, fussing excitedly about this detail or that, terribly self-preoccupied, and, I have to admit, feeling a little sorry for myself, outside the taxi driver was waiting patiently. He just stood - I noticed it - looking at the sun with a wonderful smile on his face, looking at the trees around him. On the way to the airport, I learned something about him. He worked terribly long hours, practically every day of every week. He didn’t have such a great life as we consider it. But the few moments he was able to stand out in the sun, looking at the trees or bushes around, were a great pleasure for him, for which he was grateful, and he expressed this. Often when I am in a momentary mood of aggravation over a minor irritation, or a supposed slight, I think of that man. He was like a messenger to me to remember all of God’s gifts everyday, a big influence in that simple way.

And the truth of the matter is that all of us, in the sight of God, are influential, often of decisive influence, whether we like it or not. Just recently I heard something called "total quality management." What impressed me so much was that the head of any unit, office, or team, whatever it is, simply by personality traits and attitudes, has a tremendous effect on the functional operation of the enterprise, but also on the lives and mentalities of the people who work there. And I’ve witnessed this in my own experience.

Now you replace this with the word "parent," or "grandparent," or even "friend," and it becomes heavy duty. In the roles that all of us play in life, we are a tremendous influence whether we like it or not. Parents who are always down, or cynical, or, God forbid, bitter, I have to say, impose damaging effects on their children for a long time. Parents who are themselves upbeat, affirmative, resilient, who have an attitude of gratitude throughout their days are a blessed positive influence.

It is incumbent upon all of us to be aware of that kind of influence. To use myself, when children in our religious school see me walking up and down the corridors, I’m concerned that I will not have a nervous or preoccupied, and certainly not a sour expression on my face, because that could influence a child’s attitude toward our faith. And that kind of influence applies, in some respect, to all of us.

For not only can we be of influence, not only are we of influence, but also according to Scripture, each of us is meant to be a big influence - each one of us. God’s first message to Abraham, the founder of Judaism, Christianity and Islam was, "Be thou a blessing so that through you all of the families of the earth may be blessed." Now Abraham, at that time, could not possibly have been a blessing to all the families of the earth. He could only have been a blessed influence to those about him. And if you will go back and read the stories, you will see that he did try to be a blessing to his family, a blessing in how he dealt with visiting strangers, and even in the manner he went about purchasing a grave site for his own family - his behavior, his tone, his principles. And through this he did become a blessing to multitudes.

And this is all the more important to us in this, our own particular time. Some of you may remember through the recent election how the American public has been suffering under a terribly negative influence. Media coverage of politics has been on almost the lowest possible level, the level of sound bites, of disrespect to the intelligence and integrity of the American public, of appealing to the lowest tastes, the basest motive, an increase, alas, of sleaze, of trash slogans, negative campaigning. And because of this influence - negative influence - on the American public, I have decided, for myself at least, on a new kind of politics you might call it. Any politician that emphasizes American community, any politician who takes the high road, any politician who faces issues in an honest and intelligent way, whatever the position, who tells people up front, for example, the immediate costs to each of us personally of policies of long-range benefit to the total community, will get my attention, my respect, and perhaps my support. But further, this situation increases the responsibility of each and every one of us right down on the grass roots level, to become greater influences to change the negative, low road atmosphere that sometimes afflicts us. Every one of us can be an influence in taking the high road, in thinking of the well-being of the rest of the community, in minimizing skepticism about ideals, and cynicism about our capacity to fulfill what God said to Abraham: "Be thou a blessing."

There’s an old concept in Judaism that centers around the Hebrew word "tikkun," which means "repair," "fixing," "a task." It is an idea that touches very much on my message today. It is the idea that each of us are who we are, with our own particular talents, capacities, personalities, our unique being; each of us is in our own situation; we are where we are, in our families, in our work, in our community, exactly because God has a particular, unique role for each of us to play, a role for good, our own "tikkun," as we call it, our own purpose for the world, the influence we are meant to be, the influence that each of us personally is meant to fulfill, and yes, through which we each find our own fulfillment. So, when we think about influence, and think about wanting to be an influence, just remember that it is a God-given mission to every one of us in exactly the same way God intended when God spoke to Abraham and said: "Be thou a blessing."

Be thou a blessing.

Orley Herron: Herb, the Bible is filled with characters who were just ordinary and God took them and transformed them into extraordinary lives. Now, we see people in high office and positions of wonderful influence who really struggle to make their faith clear. You are a person of great spiritual leadership, how do we help those people?

Herbert Bronstein: That’s a very good point, doubly good point. First of all, I think of Amos who said, "I’m not a prophet" - meaning he had no official position, not a member of the prophetic organization, a guild - "that God took me from following the flocks." Exactly what you said, and then he becomes a major figure in our religious thought or ethos, and so forth.

And then what you said secondly, really rings a bell because there’s a two-way interplay between the people who do have influence, who are meant to have influence, and be influences for good - and just as you say - want to be influences for good on spiritual principles. And there’s an interplay between them and the public, and we should support, be very supportive of any move made by such leadership to raise things to a high level. We have to be responsive, too, when someone brings us a fine message or wants to lift the atmosphere or wants to talk about moral principles. And, you know, usually politicians are led to think just like a lot of television. You know, they feel they have to appeal to the lowest level. At least people of faith should be responsive and be supportive in every way of any move like that. It’s not only blaming leaders or blaming people of influence. It’s the whole atmosphere of a society, and there is a two-way relationship. We play as big a role as they do in being responsive.

Herron: And I think at times we don’t realize how influential we are. And maybe some of us want to ignore it or suppress it and just say, "You know, that’s too much responsibility."

Bronstein: The avoidance of responsibility. Your point is important just to make it as you did, and we have to think about that.

Herron: Herb, tell me that word. Was it "tikkun?"

Bronstein: "Tikkun."

Herron:  "Tikkun."

Bronstein: It just means to fix.

Herron: Do we need to fix Jewish and Christian relations?

Bronstein:  We always have to work on it. We’re fortunate. I think it’s a great blessing that Jewish-Christian relationships are the finest in the United States, in our great country, than they have ever been in history, and we lead in that in the world, but there are still things to be done. You know, on the level I think at least of a part of the clergy, we are getting rid of some of the negative ideas that we have about each other on an intellectual level even. To go to the heart of things, to give an example, we used to hear even, in public school textbooks, that while Judaism is the religion of justice, Christianity is the religion of love, not that both religions are interested in both and have basis of both. On the other hand, Jews like to point out, "Oh, that negative concept of original sin," without understanding really what it’s about. So now we’re reaching a new level and that requires fixing too.

Herron: Thank you, Herb. Wish we had more time.